In the last few decades, learner autonomy has been considered a vital indicator of successful language learning. Most language teachers likely do not deny the importance of learner autonomy, as learning is ultimately the learner's responsibility. However, to what extent do teachers value this concept? To what extent do teachers actually promote…

Teacher identity has increasingly become a major educational research area. Nevertheless, high school in-service English teachers' identity changes, as facilitated by their further studies in the pursuit of professional development are less explored. This study begins to fill this gap by examining their identities as to how they strike a balance…

This study explored cultural influences on English language teachers' judgments of English metaphors created by Taiwanese learners of English. Based on a mixed-methods approach, it delved into the rating severity and implicit evaluation criteria of two cultural groups of teachers: Taiwanese and Americans. Ten Taiwanese teachers and 10 American…

English teachers' professional identity construction is an on-going process of identification and negotiation of personal self-roles, prior experiences in learning and teaching, and the roles promoted by institutional and social practices. Based on the conceptual framework adopted from Wetzler's (2010) Key Drivers of Teacher Learning, documents,…

Communicative approaches have been a dominant paradigm in foreign/second language teaching since the 1980s. However, they are not widely accepted by teachers in many English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. The current study adopted an action research approach to study classroom practice in a Taiwanese EFL secondary school, to identify and…

Demand for English-taught courses (ETCs) is growing exponentially in non-English speaking universities. These courses require new teaching competences of lecturers, most obviously English language proficiency and intercultural skills. Given the high workloads academics are currently burdened with, it can be expected that this form of teaching is…

This study used documents, interviews, and questionnaires to explore 10 Taiwanese elementary school English teachers' perceptions of teacher leaders and leadership and to what extent their background influenced their perceptions of leadership. The conceputal framework was developed based on the component of teacher leaderships, principles for…

This article reports on a practitioner research study exploring how creative thinking activities can be designed and integrated into high school English classes. It delineates the process of developing a metaphorical creativity workshop for year 11 students in Taiwan and demonstrates the students' workshop experiences and learning outcomes.…

With the rapid increase in the amount of online learning opportunities available has come with it an increase in challenges concerning how to support effective teaching and learning in online learning spaces. Through two research studies, this dissertation explores two challenges in the field of online teaching and learning: community development…

High-stakes testing has frequently exerted a strong influence on teaching and learning in educational contexts. In 2012, the Ministry of Education passed legislation that made the new Test of English Listening Comprehension a requirement for the University Entrance Examination. The present study investigated how far the launch of the new English…

NNESTs have diverse educational backgrounds. For example, a number of non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) have obtained their degrees abroad in English-speaking countries and have returned to their countries in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) contexts, working alongside NNESTs who have been educated domestically. Yet, little is known…

Service learning provides pre-service educators with a context for having hands-on field experience and also assists in understanding the theory and practice. This study discusses 7 undergraduates' implementations of learning stations as their service learning with 28 elementary school students. Through thematic data analysis of interviews,…

This dissertation explores what happens to American-trained Taiwanese English teachers when they return to teaching in Taiwan. Using a method of "collective biography", it inquires into three American-trained Taiwanese English teachers' life stories and the researcher's own as an American-trained Taiwanese English teacher and researcher.…

This study was carried out to seek the correlations of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests (GMRT), a norm-referenced reading test used in the United States, with the AST and the GSAT English tests, the two most important college entrance English tests held annually in Taiwan. The AST group comprised 53 students, and the GSAT group included 171…

Effective teaching performance is a crucial factor contributing to students' learning improvement. Students' ratings of teachers at the end of each semester can indirectly provide valuable information about teachers' performance. This paper selects classes of freshmen students taking a course of English in a university of Taiwan from the academic…